On-Track Brewing

On-Track Brewing On-Track Brewery isn't a true commercial brewery. Keep watching for fun and craziness!

it's just a page where Sarah and I can contain a whole batch of our pic and exploits as we navigate the strange and quirky world of home-brewed beer.

We bottled our Orange Dreamin' Cream Ale this morning, and I'm pleased to report that we got 45 bottles of tastiness con...
07/31/2026

We bottled our Orange Dreamin' Cream Ale this morning, and I'm pleased to report that we got 45 bottles of tastiness conditioning on the brew-table. We MIGHT have pulled it to 46, but, well, sampling happened. We're going to end up with a VERY drinkable Ale at the 4.99% ABV figure. I'd like to call it 5%, but math doesn't work that way. It could actually do that technically, because when there's a final "kick" to self-carbonate in the bottles, that's done with a final little meal of sugar, causing a bit more ferment in the bottles. What you enjoy in the bottle MIGHT be 5%, but there's no real way I can calculate that. Sarah describes this beer as " orange flavor with a hint of vanilla and a silky texture". This all makes sense to me in the construction of said beer. We used a full pound of Lactose sugar during the brewing process. This produces that Smoooooth mouthfeel silkinenss that she picks up, at the expense of a higher ABV. If we left that non-fermentable sugar out, that beer would be dry, the orange would probably come through too much, harshly, and it simply wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable. Yeah, it might be 8.1% ABV, but that there is not why we make beer.... good beer.... So for now, at least a minimum of another week while these carbonate, longer if I can stand it (I can't!) then to the cooler!

Well, it's just so darned hot outside today, that it's gonna be "indoor-time". Today we're reclaiming empty bottles, as...
07/16/2026

Well, it's just so darned hot outside today, that it's gonna be "indoor-time". Today we're reclaiming empty bottles, as we're about ready to bottle the Orange Dreamin' Cream Ale. Somewhere along the line while moving, we apparently inadvertently pitched the bottles I bought from the brewing supply house. Well. OOPS. So if I can instead assemble about two cases worth of replacement bottles, I'm good for the moment. New Glarus Brewery to the rescue. Fortunately they were PRY-OFF, not TWIST-OFF like Bud Light bottles. I have a crimping tool for bottling. I'll get these old labels off, send them all through the dishwasher, then sterilize them before use, and I think we good!!!

07/06/2026

Did a bit of brewery finagling today. Checked the specific gravity of the Orange Deamin' Cream Ale. My initial thought was that the ferment stalled, as the numbers weren't really where I expected them to be. But then I sat down and did some thinking. I used an Omega products Pacific Northwest Ale yeast. That yeast has a 67 - 71% attenuation value, which could potentially cap the final SG at 1.021. Mine right now is 1.026. Then I looked at the environment. I'd been running the room at about 72 since I brewed. OK, maybe that made the ALE yeast sluggish. So I raised the setting to 75 and we'll see if that kicks things off again. Now during the brew, I added a pound of lactose. That's non-fermentable sugar. That will permanently raise the final gravity as it adds sweetness and body to the beer. So a couple GOOD things.... Today I added several ounces of Sweet Orange Peel tincture in vodka into the beer. There's a bit of sugar in that of course, might give the yeasties a bit of something to chew on. Most importantly, we had to do something with the sample that we extracted to do the SG test with. Of course, that something, was to drink it. Now generally speaking, flat un-carbonated room-temperature beer isn't stunningly great. Most of the time. But y'all, I cannot begin to describe how TASTY this stuff was. Smooth, very smooth. Creamy mouthfeel. The hoppiness has dissipated as expected. The orange is nicely "there". It will be good to check this in another week to see how the tincture has affected things. I'm going to say that by mid-week next week, we should be ready to bottle. If nothing changes, from today, it will likely come out to 4.8% abv. I'm thinking that the addition of the tincture and the bottling sugar for bottle carbonation should (could?) raise it near 5.0%. No more than that.

06/18/2026

Beer Update: We pulled another sample this morning to check the current specific gravity. It's not moved a great deal, now sitting at 1.030. This gives us a "decent" beer at 4.20% ABV. Mechanically I'd say that this beer is roughly halfway done. Now the impatient part of me wants it to be better, but the logical part of me says that this is just fine at this point. Home Brew can go this way. As for the ACTUAL test, yes, we drank off what we extracted for testing. The CREAMINESS part of the cream ale is building. I can still taste the Cascade hops in there, which I think folks are really gonna like. Sometime soon here (today) we're going to start a tincture of Sweet Oranges suspended in Vodka. Vodka is as close to GNS (Grain Neutral Spirits) as I can get my hands on. Due to (GNS's) high extraction ability and lack of flavor, it is heavily used by home brewers for making homemade tinctures. Vodka is also tasteless, and although not quite as potent as GNS, it will do just fine. When we introduce the orange tincture into the wort/beer here in a week, the added sugars in that will kick off another batch of yeast activity, should kick the beer into overdrive.

So now we have the clean "liquid" sitting in the secondary. I'll call it liquid because it's still about halfway WORT a...
06/10/2026

So now we have the clean "liquid" sitting in the secondary. I'll call it liquid because it's still about halfway WORT and halfway BEER. Now if I leave it alone for a couple weeks, I'm looking at somewhere north of 6.3% ABV. Just a waiting game.

Of course, the important part. A sample is taken for analysis. We have checked the specific gravity of the beer at thi...
06/10/2026

Of course, the important part. A sample is taken for analysis. We have checked the specific gravity of the beer at this stage, and from that calculate that this very new beer already has an ABV of about 3.7%. Now that really doesn't sound like much. It's not. But remember, this beer is just 1 week old. Two weeks from now, I'll expect a much different result. Now taste-wise, and again, one week old. Many beers are this stage aren't very good. This one though... Yeah buddy. It's tasty already. It's ever so slightly hop-forward, which I expect out of using Cascade hops. Those aren't my favorite hops to use, but they are necessary to impart the citrus flavor that I need out of this beer. I think it's the Cascade in addition to the pacific ale yeast that's gonna bring that out well. The beer is currently tasty, not bitter, and does already have that "orange" kick.

See now.... Clear, clean (barely) beer
06/10/2026

See now.... Clear, clean (barely) beer

After sterilizing EVERYTHING that would touch our beer, we siphon from the primary fermenter vessel over to the secondar...
06/10/2026

After sterilizing EVERYTHING that would touch our beer, we siphon from the primary fermenter vessel over to the secondary fermenter vessel. This clears the bitter nasty stuff out of the way so that our little biological friends can continue their work.

After a solid week of the Omega Pacific Ale yeast working on our wort, we have a certain amount of schmutz, a.k.a.; "tru...
06/10/2026

After a solid week of the Omega Pacific Ale yeast working on our wort, we have a certain amount of schmutz, a.k.a.; "trubb" that our growing beer is sitting on. Ya really don't want to leave that in place. Bitter. Not tasty.

06/10/2026

The orange dreamin cream ale was racked over to the secondary fermenter just a little while ago. Pics and comments on the results on a bit after I get the brew-cave cleaned up.

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724 Highway 107 S
Del Rio, TN
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